The Hidrocaleras Project: A Battery for a Blue Economy?

Keywords: Seawater pumped storage hydro, renewables, blue economy, corporate agenda
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 19

Abstract

Since its appearance in the 1890s pumped storage hydropower has been the largest source of
electricity storage. Consisting of a system that pumps water up and down between two
reservoirs, this technology could facilitate the expansion of renewable energies. One of its
varieties is the seawater pumped hydro, a system that uses the ocean as one of its reservoirs.
Following the closure of the pioneer project of Yanbaru, Japan in 2016, the Hidrocaleras Project
will become the only seawater project in the world. With a power capacity of 49.9 megawatts,
this system will be constructed in the province of Cantabria, Spain, using an abandoned mine and
the ocean as the reservoirs. The Cantabria government advertises Hidrocaleras as a crucial
regional strategy to construct a blue economy based upon wind farms and a sustainable marine
exploitation. Based upon interviews and secondary sources, this paper asserts the positive
potential of this project while exposing the corporate agenda behind it. Global corporations such
as ACS and Vinci are integrated in this project, and subsidiaries such as Green Power Capital
have various wind projects that need the sort of storage capacity that the Hidrocaleras project can
provide. Hidrocaleras, therefore, would be vital in the expansion of these projects. Hiding behind
regional interests and a green ideology, these international corporations would access public
funds in order to promote their energy projects.